Julius Bissier & Flavio Paolucci

Galerie Carzangia presents two exhibtions one by Julius  Bissier and other by Flavio Paoluccis at their presmises at Gemsberg 8 and 10.

Julius Bissier(1893-1965), born 1893 in Freiburg in Breisgau (Germany) studied painting for a short time in Karlsruhe. In the beginning he painted mainly portraits and landscapes characterized by a tender religiosity. Bissiers further artistic development would be influenced by many contemporaries such as bythe sinologist Ernst Grosse, through whom Bissier learned about eastasian ink painting and ceramics.

Between 1923 and 1928 Bissiers style turned towards Neue Sachlichkeit realism. In 1929 Bissier encountered Willi Baumeister (who was in touch with Picasso, Braque and Klee) which would lead to Bissiers adoption of an abstract style. Accpeting instead of rejecting non-represantational painting led to a whole new form of artistic freedom for Bissier, resulting in his first non-representational ink-drawings in 1930/31. The forms are evocative of calligraphy, allowing Bissier to combine denotation and connotation in one brush.

The spiritual qualities of the eastasian calligraphic style matched perfectly with Bissiers desire to paint not surfaces but the essence of things. This became also evident in his experiments with monotypes and woodcuts (1947 –1955) which pave the way for his “miniatures”. From 1955 to 1965 Bissier dedicated himself to those very small paintings on small patches of canvasor paper. The floating forms, painted with egg-oil tempera or watercolour, oscillate between letters and organic structures, occassionally converging with typographic lettres.

In these years Bissiers oeuvre slowly gained recognition, resulting in participations at the Venice Biennales of 1958 and 1960 and at documenta III in 1964. These delicate works irradiate a soft lucidity and evoke the capture of an almost elusive single unit of time. This is also underlined by Bissiers signature which often includes place and time. These miniatures are the centerpiece of the exhibition at Galerie Carzaniga which is realized in partnership with the Archivio Bissier in Ascona, the place where Bissier lived from 1961 until his death in 1965.

Flavio Paolucci (1934) oeuvre is not limted to one medium but consists of sculptures, material paintings and drawings. However all of his works are related though their aura of stillness. This delicate stillness is the embodiment of Paoluccis connection to the nature immediately surrounding him. Through the used materials and clear motifs (houses trees, tree branches e.g.)this connection is made bluntly evident. With his discreet and sparing formal language he then transposes the concrete signified into a poetic dimension.In our exhibition “Dai sentieri Illuminati” (“Illuminated paths”) works from 2007 until 2016 are on display.

Flavio Paolucci is one of the most famous living Swiss sculptor and was recently featured in a retrospective at the Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano (2014) and invited to do a solo-exhibition at the 6th sculpture triennaleBad Ragartz (2015).